_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Nobody predicted Ocon or Stroll for the podium? What were we thinking?

I still wouldn't take those two for the podium even if they locked out the front row

I'd take Ocon if he was on pole. I wouldn't take Stroll under any circumstances just yet... too much chance that someone would get him on the last lap!

I was just about to get excited for my perfect podium of Ham, Bot, and Vet. Then I took a look and realized 6 or 7 of us are nailing a perfect podium this weekend! Looks like no big gains to be made from Monza. The battle continues on the streets of Singapore in 2 weeks...

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

With Mercedes looking alarmingly dominant throughout much of practice, there was near-universal expectation of a Hamilton victory - and he duly delivered, absolutely dominating a washed out qualifying and taking one of his easier victories of the year. Only three people (and very unlucky for them!) failed to score the five points for that victory.

A lesser number correctly foresaw the total domination that the Silver Arrows were able to produce, putting them 1-2 atop the podium. An honorable mention goes out to Remmirath, who did so - but was the only one bold enough to put Bottas as the lead Merc, and coming away with 0 points as a result. The path to the top is paved with the bones of those who made such gambles, and sadly Remmirath's bones have now been added to that dread pavement.

Instead, the seven people who had the Mercedes drivers the right way around - and all seven of them also had Vettel in third - pick up a rather crowded joint win. Congratulations to those fine folks!

With such high scoring, there was sure to be some movement - and indeed, there was. Championship leader mcdo holds on to first place, and actually extends his lead somewhat; however, the contestants who had previously been ranked 2nd, 3rd and 4th all suffer badly.

In a case of the rich getting richer while the poor stay poor, 6 of the 7 people who scored a Perfect Podium were already in the top 9. The result is a precipitous plummet of positions for the 3 who didn't manage to get in one the spoils; the entire block of 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th jumps ahead of the former 2nd, 3rd and 4th ranked entrants, displacing them to 7th on down. Rounding out the top ten is the only other person to score a Perfect Podium this round, cm97, who jumps from 16th to 10th.

A clear gap is now forming between the top ten (top nine, really) and everyone else. Mayhem and Jenson's Understeer remain inseparable - now tied for 11th - but a mistake by Fountoukos13 and no points as a result drops him from the tie, and theferret slots in between in 13th place. Behind Fountoukos13, a pair of fellow no-scores from Monza - Remmirath and Lotus49 - occupy positions 15 and 16, respectively, with robins13 bringing up the rear of those currently active in the competition.

Ruste13 has now recorded 5 successive DNS results, and is declassified from the standings for now. If he re-enters the competition, he will retain his results.

With seven Perfect Podiums scored, there was the potential for some team to gain immensely if both of their drivers managed to secure one. Surprisingly enough, however, none did; all seven belonged to different teams (or no team at all, in the case of TypingChicane).

Jalopy racing remains in first position, courtesy of strong and consistent scoring by both members, but behind them the field moves around a bit. Bernie's Bwoah ascends to 2nd, displacing McLotus, which loses another position to the 2015 champions; No Limit Excedrin Racing ties them on points, but has one more win to their name, giving them 3rd place for now.

Behind the extremely tight group battling for 2nd, Driver Sauber moves up to 5th place, followed by Massa Attack into 6th, both teams benefiting from the fall of Mind Your Manors; as one of only two teams to get no Perfect Podiums this round, the defending champs fall all the way from 3rd to 7th, demonstrating the tight and competitive nature of the midfield this year.

Sand Bag'n remains in last, having probably already focused their development on next year long ago.

Singapore is next, and with the prospect of a Red Bull victory looming large, how many will feel bold enough to actually knock those annoying silver cars off their podium entirely? Will Vettel produce another of his stunning Singaporean drives, or will it be the Honey Badger claiming his second win of the season?

And is anyone feeling bold enough to predict that Max Verstappen will have a trouble-free race?

Nice writeup! Thanks for posting the table..cool to look at it that way.

What a strong second half of the season we've been having. After Baku we were only 3 points from last place and 20 points away from first. Now we're in a championship fighting position!Hopefully they don't ban our oil burning advantage for the last few races

Our highest remaining seed, Icemanjee1, has opened up a bit of a gap over Fountoukos13 courtesy of a non-score from Fountoukos13. There is still the possibility of another big upset, but Icemanjee1 can head to Singapore knowing that correctly predicting the race winner would leave Fountoukos13 requiring a Perfect Podium to overturn the deficit. Talking of deficits, Black_Flag_11 finds themselves in a world of pain against Exediron, whose Perfect Podium in Italy has handed them an advantage of nine points. This means Black_Flag_11 must score a Perfect Podium in Singapore to have any chance of advancing to the semi-finals, and even then correctly predicting 1st and 2nd or 3rd would be enough for Exediron to cause another big upset. The other two matches remain finely poised as both saw identical scores: Herb and Mayhem sharing five points each, while TypingChicane and mcdo both managed to nab a Perfect Podium, leaving them tied at 19-19! It means that Herb and TypingChicane know that a place in the semi-final is theirs if they can at least match their opponent's score in Singapore; conversely, both Mayhem and mcdo will be aware that should they outscore their opponent, they'll have booked a spot in the semi-final.

As things stand we would see #2 seed Icemanjee1 against #8 seed Exediron, and #4 seed Herb facing off with #5 seed TypingChicane, but nothing is set in stone just yet!

I always seem to get stronger as the season goes on, so I'm feeling pretty good right now. I've already reached my traditional 4th place with races to spare, so here's hoping I actually manage to make it higher this year!

Eliminating the reigning Knockout Champion will be merely the icing on my cake of victory.

I always seem to get stronger as the season goes on, so I'm feeling pretty good right now. I've already reached my traditional 4th place with races to spare, so here's hoping I actually manage to make it higher this year!

Eliminating the reigning Knockout Champion will be merely the icing on my cake of victory.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967